With nearly four million active stores, including Whole Foods, Kylie Cosmetics, and Red Bull, Shopify is the world's leading ecommerce platform. Given that 14.8% of retail sales are online (as is the vast majority of customer research) and seeing how opening a Shopify store has a low barrier of entry, it's easy to see why so many businesses are choosing to grow their business through Shopify.
Getting started is easy; all it takes is a day's worth of your time and (maybe) a small investment. However, almost 90% of ecommerce businesses fail, underscoring the importance of taking the proper steps to ensure your store stands out and succeeds. In this article, we'll give you four tips to ensure your Shopify store succeeds.
1. Sell multiple products
Selling one or two products usually doesn't work, even if they're highly differentiated. Most of the time, small product catalogs mean your pool of buyers is limited, making it harder to get the attention of potential customers and convert them.
Ideally, you should sell products that can be bundled, cross-sold, or upsold. If you sell products in a saturated market, adding substitute models or complementary products could even be your differentiation strategy. To determine the right products to add to your catalog, here are a few ideas:
- Talk to your customers: Your existing customers are a goldmine of information. Ask them what they like about your current offerings and if there are any additional products they'd like to see.
- Conduct surveys: Surveys are a great way to gather feedback from a wider audience. You can use online survey tools like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms to create and distribute surveys to your customers, email subscribers, and social media followers. Ask questions about their preferences, needs, and pain points to gain insights into potential new products.
- Research competitors: Keep an eye on your competition to see what products they offer and how they perform. Identify gaps in their product range or areas where you can offer a better solution. Analyze their marketing strategies, pricing, and customer reviews to find opportunities for improvement.
2. Optimize your web pages for conversions
You might have been able to get your store up and running with a cheap template. But to grow your business, you must familiarize yourself with the Shopify website builder. These are some of the main aspects to focus on for conversion rate optimization (CRO):
- Responsive design: With more than half of all online shopping on mobile devices, you need a seamless store across different devices. The Shopify website builder offers a range of responsive themes, which you can use to ensure mobile-friendliness.
- Easy navigation: A well-organized and user-friendly site structure will help visitors find what they're looking for quickly and easily. Use Shopify's built-in navigation tools to create intuitive menus, product categories, and search functionality. This will improve the user experience and increase the chances of customers browsing through your products and making a purchase.
- Product recommendations: Shopify's website builder lets you display personalized product recommendations based on customers' browsing history or items in their cart. You can increase the average order value and boost conversions by showcasing relevant products.
- Abandoned cart recovery: Many potential customers add items to their cart but leave without completing the purchase. Shopify's abandoned cart recovery feature enables you to send automated emails to these customers, reminding them of their abandoned items and offering incentives to complete their purchases.
- A/B testing: A/B tests are essential to CRO. Shopify offers various apps and integrations that allow you to test different website elements, such as headlines, images, CTAs, and more. Use the insights gained from these tests to make data-driven decisions and improve your store's performance.
3. Use marketing automation
Once you have the money to invest more heavily in marketing campaigns, marketing automation for Shopify will be your best friend. Marketing automation uses software to automate email campaigns, social media replies, website engagement, and other repetitive marketing updates. That way, you can connect with your customers on autopilot. Depending on your marketing mix, you may use marketing automation in one or more of the following ways:
- Email marketing (onboarding emails, personalized offers, and newsletters)
- Social media feeds, follow-ups, and automated responses
- Website pop-ups, banners, targeted content
- Lead nurturing and scoring
- Customer segmentation and targeting
4. Leverage SEO to grow your brand through organic search.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the ultimate sustainable ecommerce growth strategy. Once you show up on Google for the right keywords, you get tons of traffic you don't have to pay for. Getting to the top of search results is no small feat. It entails some hard work, including the following steps:
- Optimize page titles, meta descriptions, and content: Ensure your pages have relevant and unique titles and descriptions with essential keywords. If your brand depends on specific copy or messaging, don't worry about adding keywords to all your title tags — it might impact your content's originality, engagement, and conversion rate.
- Grow your brand awareness: Since you might not be able to add relevant keywords in taglines like other types of websites, you can take advantage of other opportunities to incorporate keywords into your content. Get creative with ways you can use keywords in blog posts, videos, webinars, and social media updates. Promote this content across the web to maximize its reach.
- Research and track keywords: Use a keyword research tool like Semrush or Ahrefs to find the best keywords to rank your site for. Start with small, low-competition keywords and work your way up.
- Build links to your home page and product pages: Of Google's 200+ ranking factors, a website's link profile is one of the most important for SEO success, as it is a clear indicator of topical authority. You can build links to your pages by contacting influencers, bloggers, and other websites in your niche for collaboration opportunities and guest posts.
5. Consider Out of the Box Marketing Techniques.
In today's saturated e-commerce landscape, merely opening a store on platforms like Shopify is insufficient. To genuinely differentiate and elevate your brand above the din, embracing out-of-the-box marketing strategies is crucial. Traditional tactics might generate some traction, but innovative, unexpected approaches capture consumers' attention and loyalty.
Leveraging platforms like The Ark Marketing & Media Services can introduce businesses to unconventional strategies that boost visibility and foster a memorable brand experience. Whether through immersive storytelling, gamified shopping experiences, or groundbreaking partnerships, stepping beyond the norm in your marketing endeavors can catalyze unprecedented growth in your Shopify business.
Endnote
Growing a Shopify store is tough, and the odds are stacked against you. In addition to a good product, you need to focus on building an experience that customers will love. Following these four tips will help ensure your Shopify store draws users in, converts them, and retains their loyalty.
